1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to board games, and more particularly, to a chess-like board game.
2. Prior Art
Board games are extremely well known in the art. Perhaps one of the most well known board games is chess. In chess, a number of different pieces are each assigned different moving ability, with the Queen being the strongest player in the game. The pieces are arranged on the well known checkerboard, with each "army" facing one another. The object of the game is to capture the opponent's King. While chess is an extremely popular game, it suffers from a number of shortcomings, perhaps the most obvious is the fact that the game is rather complicated and requires many years of practice before the game can be truly mastered. In addition, the game requires a number of different playing pieces, i.e., a King, Queen, Bishops, Knights, Rooks and Pawns.
On the other hand, the principle behind chess, competing one army against another, has captured the "gamesmanship" of a large number of people. Based on this principle, a proliferation of board games has evolved. Representatives of similar games can be found in a large number of patents. For example, reference is made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,999,760; 3,998,463; and 4,049,274. While each of these patents describes various board games, the game of the present invention enables one to evolve a strategy like chess, but utilizes different playing members in such a manner that it is substantially easier for the game to be learned. However, since the game of the present invention lends itself to the development of strategies, and the like, it can also be played by very sophisticated players, thus substantially eliminating the possibility of winning the game by luck, as is the case in many prior art games.